A Man Without a Spirit Root

(Leave your brains at the door.)

(Writing isn't easy. Please don't judge the author by the standards of a great master. Have a little more patience and understanding; progress takes time and accumulation.)

"Yi Xuan, since you are a man without a Spirit Root, as of today you are stripped of your position as heir to the sect master!"

Hearing those words, Yi Xuan gave a bitter smile and nodded.

The young man standing beside the master of the Azure Cloud Sect saw Yi Xuan kneeling below and couldn't bear it.

He knelt and pleaded with the sect master. "Master, is there really no way to help Junior Brother Yi? He had a seventh-grade Spirit Root, of all things!"

But the sect master could only shake his head helplessly, unable to say a single word.

A sect elder nearby spoke up mockingly. "Seventh-grade? Now he has no grade at all. He's a Rootless Person! Disciples of our Azure Cloud Sect must possess Spirit Roots, so from today onward, he is no longer a disciple of our sect..."

"Elder Xiong!" The sect master cut the elder off before he could finish. "Although Yi Xuan is no longer the heir to the sect master because of the problem with his Spirit Root, he is still my disciple!"

The elder surnamed Xiong sneered without speaking, but another elder stepped forward. "That won't do! If outsiders learn that the master of our esteemed Azure Cloud Sect has taken a piece of trash as his disciple, what will they think?"

Elder Xiong nodded in agreement. "Indeed. For the sake of the sect's reputation, I ask that the sect master expel him!"

"Sect master, please expel Yi Xuan!"

Almost every elder in the sect's main hall jumped forward and spoke up.

Faced with so many elders, the sect master found himself caught between two choices. In the end, he had no choice but to speak. "Yi Xuan, from today onward, the bond between master and disciple is severed. However, you remain a disciple of the sect. Our Azure Cloud Sect will not stoop to the conduct of petty men who welcome someone when they need him and cast him aside when they don't! What do the elders think?"

The elders heard the implication in the sect master's words, but they could not refute him. One by one, they could only nod their agreement.

When the young man beside the sect master heard that the bond between the sect master and Yi Xuan had come to an end, he slumped to the ground.

Yi Xuan, however, remained quite composed. He bowed deeply to the sect master, then thanked the young man beside him.

After that, he went down the mountain without looking back.

Twenty years later!

"Come take a look! Freshly made Qi Gathering Pills! Junior brothers at the Qi Refining Realm, don't miss out!"

"Junior brother! What are you looking at? Come see what your senior brother has here. I've got plenty of good things. How about a Foundation Establishment Realm Demon Beast's hide?"

"Immortal master! Our shop just acquired some immortal tea. Would you like to come in and have a taste?"

The Azure Cloud Sect had stood on this mountain for thousands of years. A thousand years ago, the land at its foot had been desolate. After a millennium of development, not only had the Azure Cloud Sect flourished, but a city had also grown at the foot of the mountain. Merchants calling out to customers could be seen everywhere in the city; some were immortal cultivators, while others were ordinary people.

"Junior brother! Congratulations on successfully achieving Foundation Establishment."

Liu Xing, who had just achieved Foundation Establishment and was preparing to buy some things at the market at the foot of the mountain, was stopped by someone calling out to him.

He turned around and saw that it was Senior Brother Zhao, who had given him guidance before.

"Senior Brother Zhao, I've just achieved Foundation Establishment, and my cultivation has stabilized, so I wanted to have a look around the market at the foot of the mountain and buy a weapon that suits me. That way, I'll have a means of fighting enemies when I take on sect missions!"

Hearing Liu Xing's words, Senior Brother Zhao nodded. "Good! You are mending the roof before the rain. Since you've only just stepped out of your thatched hut, I, as your senior brother, really ought to give you some pointers."

Liu Xing was delighted to hear Senior Brother Zhao's words. In this world of immortal cultivation, where the strong preyed on the weak, finding someone kind enough to offer guidance was a stroke of luck one could not seek out.

He hurriedly put on an attentive expression.

Seeing Liu Xing's reaction, Senior Brother Zhao smiled. "No need for that. It's nothing important. I happen to be going to the market too, so let's talk as we walk."

"As for other things, I don't have much to recommend. I expect you've already learned quite a bit from the other senior brothers! But when it comes to weapons, especially for someone like you who has just achieved Foundation Establishment, that shop is the one you should choose above all others!"

Liu Xing asked curiously, "That shop? Which one...?"

Senior Brother Zhao merely gave a mysterious smile and said nothing, pulling Liu Xing into the market.

The two of them took turn after turn for who knew how long, until they finally found a small shop in a quiet little alley.

Calling it a small shop might have been giving it too much credit. It was simply a stall thrown together outside the entrance to a courtyard.

A few things were laid out on the stall. Liu Xing looked them over; they weren't much to look at.

"Senior Brother Yi!"

Senior Brother Zhao called out to the young man resting behind the stall.

Hearing someone call him, the young man blearily opened his eyes. His gaze was unfocused, and only after looking at Liu Xing and Senior Brother Zhao for quite some time did his eyes gradually focus.

"Oh, it's you! How was that blade from last time? Does it still suit you?"

"Of course a weapon from Senior Brother Yi suits me. This is a junior brother from the sect who just achieved Foundation Establishment. We knew each other from before, and when I happened to run into him today, he said he wanted to buy a weapon that suited him so he could take on some sect missions. So I brought him here to you!"

The man surnamed Yi behind the stall nodded and looked at Liu Xing. "What do you have in mind for a weapon? Or shall I choose one for you?"

Yi Xuan looked at the newcomer to the world of immortal cultivation standing before his stall with a bewildered expression and found it amusing.

He picked up a short weapon from the stall and handed it to Liu Xing.

Liu Xing took the weapon from the stall owner and examined it carefully for a long time, but he still couldn't tell what the strangely shaped weapon in his hand was.

When Senior Brother Zhao saw what the stall owner had recommended, his expression said it was just as he had expected. He told Liu Xing, "That's a triangular bayonet!"

With that, Senior Brother Zhao rummaged around in the Storage Bag at his waist for a while, pulled out an identical weapon, and showed it to Liu Xing.

Although the weapon in Senior Brother Zhao's hand looked identical to Liu Xing's, Liu Xing could still smell the waves of blood coming from it.

"Senior Brother Zhao! What a strong smell of blood!"

"That's right! This weapon has been with me through most of my time in the Foundation Establishment Realm. I don't know how many times it has turned danger into safety for me!" After speaking, he affectionately stroked the blade.

"Ahem! Don't compare that outdated thing in your hand to the one he has." The stall owner ruthlessly interrupted Senior Brother Zhao as he stroked the blade.

The stall owner stood up and pointed at the weapon in Liu Xing's hand. "See that? There's a groove in the handle! When you're in a crisis, channel the true essence in your body into it, then throw the bayonet at the enemy within three breaths. It might just save your life! Five low-grade Spirit Stones, no bargaining!"

Before Liu Xing could speak, Senior Brother Zhao spoke up unhappily. "Senior Brother Yi, how come it has an extra function, but the price has gone down? I had to pay ten low-grade Spirit Stones for mine!"

Hearing Senior Brother Zhao's words, Liu Xing promptly put down five Spirit Stones. Weapon in hand, he pulled Senior Brother Zhao, who still wanted to argue with the stall owner, away at a brisk pace.

On the way back, Senior Brother Zhao still looked indignant. Liu Xing asked curiously, "Senior Brother Zhao, is the man you call Senior Brother Yi also a disciple of our Azure Cloud Sect?"

Senior Brother Zhao nodded. "That's right! Senior Brother Yi is a disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect, just like you and me, but he's also a little different from us! He's a man without a Spirit Root!"

"A man without a Spirit Root?" It was the first time Liu Xing had heard the term, and he asked, not understanding what it meant.

"What must a person have to cultivate immortality?"

"A sect? A Cultivation Method? Resources?" After naming several things, Liu Xing saw Senior Brother Zhao only shake his head. He thought for another moment, then his eyes lit up. "A Spirit Root!"

"That's right! To cultivate immortality, one must have a Spirit Root. Spirit Roots in this world are divided into nine grades, with first-grade the lowest and ninth-grade the highest. The higher the grade, the greater one's aptitude for cultivation. The first three grades are low-grade Spirit Roots, unsuitable for immortal cultivation. Only those with Spirit Roots of fourth-grade or above catch the eye of immortal sects and are accepted as disciples."

Liu Xing nodded. All immortal cultivators, and even ordinary people, knew this basic information.

"A Rootless Person is someone who has no Spirit Root!"

"How is that possible?" Liu Xing asked in surprise. Even ordinary people who couldn't cultivate possessed Spirit Roots; theirs were merely low-grade Spirit Roots, which made them unsuitable for immortal cultivation. A Spirit Root was intimately tied to a person's life, and only the dead had none.

"Actually, Rootless Persons had Spirit Roots to begin with. Take Senior Brother Yi, who joined the sect twenty years ago. Back then, he had a seventh-grade Spirit Root and was the light of the sect!"

"Seventh-grade? Wasn't that higher than even the sect master's?"

"That's right! With his seventh-grade Spirit Root, Senior Brother Yi reached the Twelfth Level of the Qi Refining Realm in just one year!"

"What? That fast? It took me five years just to scrape my way to the twelfth level, and then another year of accumulation before I broke through to the Foundation Establishment Realm!"

Senior Brother Zhao glanced at Liu Xing and smiled. "You won't envy what happened after that. Senior Brother Yi tried for three years but couldn't break through to Foundation Establishment. In the end, the sect examined his Spirit Root and discovered that it had disappeared. That's how he became a Rootless Person!"